It seems that CZ flights beyond March have been blocked out with travel agents being unable to secure seats on direct flights from PER to China.

It is being reported that when asked what is planned the airline said that "no final decision has been made in relation to the Perth market at this point".

Apparently sales have not been all that good and one factor may be the lengthy transit timesin Guangzhou that are often required for passengers wishing to travel onwards to Europe. Not only are transit of six hours or more common, but in some instances a domestic transfer is required and can involve obtaining a Chinese visa. For example, PER-CAN-PEK-final destination. Despite lower fares many passengers would rather avoid the hassle of extended times sitting at airports and possibly needing visas.

Only 4.5 per cent of Chinese who come to Australia visit Western Australia, despite efforts by the State Government to lift its visibility in the Chinese market.

I always thought CZ's hunger was too big for the spoon on this route. Sad to see it go if it does though. II flew this route once, and its the only time I have flown CZ, and I thought it was great!

Quoting Quokkas (Thread starter):but in some instances a domestic transfer is required and can involve obtaining a Chinese visa. For example, PER-CAN-PEK-final destination. Despite lower fares many passengers would rather avoid the hassle of extended times sitting at airports and possibly needing visas

As long as the PEK-Final International Destination departure time is within 24 hours of the arrival time into Guangzhou, passengers will get a free 24hour border permit.

What a Joke. They come out saying they want to be one of the biggest International carriers in Australia by 2015 but they (China Eastern are just as bad) can barely sustain services. Their product offering is plain shit.

They had chopped and changed Cairns, then cut it off. Melbourne was reduced before they even started the extra services. China Eastern sent in a 767 from Shanghai Airlines to Melbourne to substitute their own offering, the 767 is like flying back in the 80s.

Quoting airbusa322 (Reply 3): They come out saying they want to be one of the biggest International carriers in Australia by 2015 but they (China Eastern are just as bad) can barely sustain services.

Grand ambitions they sure had, but the reality sets in fast if you want to operate services viably.

Carriers take time to develop markets, increasing gradually to build the demand, yields and image, which they seem to have taken a couple of steps too far in this ambitious step to develop the CAN hub.

Quoting Quokkas (Thread starter):Apparently sales have not been all that good and one factor may be the lengthy transit timesin Guangzhou that are often required for passengers wishing to travel onwards to Europe.

Competition from PER to Europe will get fiercer now that QR has entered the market and QF is teaming up with EK.

Quoting airbusa322 (Reply 3):What a Joke. They come out saying they want to be one of the biggest International carriers in Australia by 2015 but they (China Eastern are just as bad) can barely sustain services. Their product offering is plain shit.

I can't say much about the product. But both CZ and MU's hub is nothing compared with CA. They mostly rely on O&D passengers and the transfer is not quite smooth.

The PER service, from what I have been told anyway, seems to lack sufficient Chinese demand at this point, and thus a bigger reliance on transfer pax is required. The hard thing about that is that CAN/CZ still does not have a hub structure that satisfied the demands of pax against some of its rivals.

Given the small amount of Chinese tourism demand into WA currently, much more work will need to go into developing that prior to really giving the foundation for this route to work.